Honor Oak Pub

Being my local pub, I really wanted to like the Honor Oak. I’ve been a few times since the refit and change of ownership.

The first visits were disappointing despite the lovely job they’d made of the refit and the massive potential of the venue. I contacted the manager privately to give him some feedback before returning, but things hadn’t improved so I wrote this review online.

I visited again last night and had a steak in their fantastic beer garden. It was moderately busy there, the steak was pretty good. But the inexperienced and unfriendly service remains.

When I came in, I was greeted by a surly young girl. I asked her if there was somewhere cool to sit, and did they have A/C? She said “dunno.” Then I suggested we go in the garden, and as I walked through the restaurant to get to the open doors to the garden, she told me off: “you’re not meant to walk through the restaurant to get to the garden.”

We sat down for a while, but seemed there was no waitress service so we ordered at the bar (this wasn’t made clear), and waited quite a while for our food. Pretty good steak, generous portions, great chips, watery peppercorn sauce.

The Honor Oak Pub is still just so-so

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I’m similarly frustrated about The Honor Oak. Bags of potential, great building and obviously a lot of work has gone into the renovation, but somehow it all just feels a bit soulless. I’m never inclined to settle in there for an entire Sunday afternoon

I’m always impressed with Antic Pubs (see Sylvain Post, East Dulwich Tavern, Jam Circus), and am very much hoping that the new owners of The Chandos can learn a thing or two from them.

What a shame. I’m in the HO right now, having just ordered food for me and the kids. Will comment later! We haven’t been in recently, but forced in today as the Railway Telegraph seems to have shut for good: doors closed when we arrived today.

On the plus side, we did catch a psyduck…

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Nice lamb, lovely pea purée and lots of new potatoes. The lamb was well done as I requested, but didn’t veer into tough, and the sauce was pleasant. The kids were very happy with their chicken burgers - they came with salad despite asking for no salad, which meant a bit of deconstructing, but we got the extra onion rings both as a side dish and inside the burger itself, so swings and roundabouts!

Overall, good quality and plenty of it (no one finished their plate).

@anon5422159 - that peppercorn sauce looks terrible. It does look like it’s actually been watered down. And was the salad as limp as it looks in your photo?

Such a shame. This pub would make a fortune if it was run well, and it’s frustrating because with the refurb I think they’ve done the hard work. But every time I go in, there are dirty glasses sitting on tables (or piled on the bar) and even when it’s relatively quiet you wait a long time to get served.

In any case, wouldn’t the General Napier be your nearest local? That’s a good no-frills pub, in my experience.

Yeah the salad wasn’t the freshest. And the peppercorn sauce was a little short of stellar!

As for the Nap, I’ve never set foot in it. I know people who have and they were made to feel pretty uncomfortable. Also doesn’t serve food as far as I can tell?

It definitely doesn’t serve food but it’s a decent pub. Not sure it deserves a reputation as uncomfortable, though coming from North Belfast, I have a very high threshold for pub scariness.

I do appreciate these things can be subjective. I’d suggest people give it a chance, though.

Coming back to the thread subject - such a shame about the Honor Oak. Thing is, I imagine even though it’s not that good, it’s still making money.

Oh. The post is an Antic pub? That’s why i like it so.

Never had a problem with the food there - but we gave up going months and months ago because the service was so utterly inattentive. Pleasant enough when you get it, but oh so painfully slow.

I don’t mind it with the baby or both kids during the day but went once at night and the lighting is awful, far too bright and like an early 90s All Bar One.

That’s the description I was looking for!

The Railway Telegraph is reopening under new ‘management’. The previous guy who did a fantastic job in doing the place up has had a difference of opinion with the brewery (Shepherd Neame) who wanted more booze sales, despite the obvious success of the menu. FYI, they’re opening a restaurant in Bromley.

Reliably informed that it will only be closed for a short while, opening under the management of a couple of brothers who have other ventures nearby. Bar staff who want to stay are being retained. Much of the food offerings will remain.

There will also be more focus on live entertainment but also reliably informed that “…don’t worry, it’ll be better than the crap we used to have on…”

The RT is a great pub (my local) but as a beer lover who doesn’t particularly like Shepherd Neame beer, it’ll always be held back by the brewery tie. I say that despite being a Man of Kent who was practically force fed the stuff!

P.S. The Honor Oak makes me sad. Was such a great pub when James, Jamie and Rupert were in charge when it changed name from the St Germain about 8 years ago. Maybe the refurbished Chandos will offer a viable alternative in September…

Showing our age?

Won’t comment on the offering as it’s a local business .& I want all to thrive!

They did abandon themselves from all other local businesses by unfollowing all of us on Twitter after following us all initially. I saw this as I use Tweetsmap on my shop account & we were all unfollowed within a few days, not sure if anyone else is aware of this & it’s not good community spirit. All you have to do is check who they follow & you can see for yourself

Not mine, I assure you!

The bane of modern pubs is that its all wood and sound echoes. Bring back carpets to dampen sound. The Nap is my closest pub but I go there rarely. No food, but it majors on Sky TV. Not for me, but good luck to it (I’d rather go to the Brockley Jack). It will be interesting to see what happens to the Chandos.

I know your kids & they are very polite & well behaved x

I had to abandon it one night a few months back due to the amount of seemingly unsupervised children in there. It was 7:30 ish on Friday night and kids were rolling around on the floor and running around between the tables. I love the fact that kids can go into pubs (unlike when I was young!) but it was well out of hand.

There is definitely something wrong with the Honor Oak which is a shame as it is in decent location with a nice building. It just doesn’t seem efficiently run. Always seems busy even when there is hardly anyone in there, they often run out of the Hibernation IPA or don’t have diet coke on tap and there are always dirty glasses on the bar. I’ll pop up for a quick (if I am lucky) pint but it doesn’t entice me to stay long…

I’ve been to the Honor Oak about 5 times and without expectation have had a weird/ bad experience with the staff - from asking if we wanted our mains served after our starters (isn’t that the way it works) to being pretty much shouted at not to smoke in the garden. This was particularly perplexing as none of us smoked and we weren’t even going in the garden!

I live 5 minutes away but now avoid and will continue to do so unless they can sort their staff out

Lunch at the Honor Oak very poor lunch The Honor Oak great on Friday /Saturday Sunday but not mid week?

I go in the Nap now and again - never felt unwelcome at all. It’s a cracking little carpet pub

took them 50 minutes to make us a sandwich.

kinda overpriced for what it is too.

It’s my nearest pub (well, excluding the Chandos) and I haven’t had a decent time the five visits I’ve had. Avoiding until I hear better reports. I’m very sorry my adopted local The Railway Telegraph is going into new hands, loved it under the previous management.

Went to the Honor Oak two or there times. Food OK but put off by unsupervised children running round pub unchecked by both parents and staff.
Not the place for a quiet read of a paper.

The RT is open again and apparently nothing has changed…so far!

Oh that’s good news!

Picking up this old thread after a reference to THO in the discussion on the Chandos.

THO is my local pub but after a series of consistently bad experiences (service, food and beer all poor) I’ve not been back in a while.

It always seems quiet when I walk past. Has anyone had a good experience there lately? Would you recommend we try again?

I haven’t been recently either but have given it many chances over the last few years and like you found it lacking in many areas. I hope someone can report back positively as it is really my local, geographically speaking, and I would be happy if it turned itself around…
Reviews on tripadvisor are very mixed…

I’ve always swerved it and gone to the Nap or Chandos instead. Blythe Hill Tavern is only down the road as well.

It’s got better. We have been going on and off a bit over the last six weeks as we’ve had a new arrival it’s relatively baby friendly compared with our usual haunts. We had been avoiding it for the last year or so after some pretty bad experiences, and we found the service and food has improved, though we’ve only really been in at quieter times. It also depends who’s working the bar, some of the staff are still rather casual and you can be waiting a while for a drink.

Thanks for that - the waiting to be served thing always annoyed me and they could certainly learn from the Chandos (never had to wait) on that score but glad to hear it had improved.
I’ll pop in for a pint next week and report back!

17 posts were split to a new topic: Honor Oak Pub (under new management, 2016)